In Sacrifice, Anya Taylor-Joy Wants to Throw Chris Evans Into a Volcano
Romain Gavras’ myth-inspired dark comedy Sacrifice brings Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, Salma Hayek-Pinault, Charli XCX, Yung Lean, and John Malkovich together for a chaotic story of wealth, faith, celebrity, and an impending apocalypse. The film will stream on Netflix in October.
Director Romain Gavras has long been fascinated by mythology. Growing up, his father, acclaimed Greek filmmaker Costa-Gavras, often told him epic stories about gods and mortals, from Mount Olympus to the Underworld.
That early influence helped shape Gavras’ approach to Sacrifice, which treats myth as a world where everything can be pushed to an extreme.
“In myths, everything is a little bit heightened,” Gavras tells Netflix. “The violence is exacerbated, the humor can be exacerbated, the stakes are exacerbated, and there are echoes with the past and the future.”
A charity gala turns into a hostage crisis
In Sacrifice, Chris Evans plays Mike Tyler, an action star whose career has fallen on hard times and who sees a high-profile environmental event as an opportunity to make a comeback.
The gala takes place inside an austere Greek mine and is hosted by billionaire Ben Bracken, played by Vincent Cassel, and his wife, Gloria, played by Salma Hayek-Pinault.
At first, the gathering resembles the kind of celebrity charity event that regularly fills social media feeds. Wealthy and influential guests assemble, make public gestures in support of a cause, pose for photographs, and eventually move on.
Then Joan, a cult leader played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and her followers seize control of the event.
Joan believes the world is facing an extinction-level catastrophe that will arrive in three days unless three people are sacrificed to a nearby volcano.
The result is a story that moves between dark comedy, myth, action, and a more serious examination of faith.
“The film is kind of a roller coaster,” Gavras says. “You need to enter the film like you’re going to enter a ride and let yourself go. There’s a lot of rug pulls and you think you’re going this way, but you’re going that way.”
Gavras co-wrote the screenplay with Will Arbery, known for his work on Succession.
What is Sacrifice about?
The story begins at a lavish charity gala packed with celebrities, billionaires, and polished speeches. Mike Tyler, a movie star facing an existential crisis, is taken hostage by Joan and her devoted followers.
As the evening spirals out of control, the characters are forced into both an outward adventure and a more personal journey. Along the way, the boundaries between performance and genuine belief, as well as salvation and sacrifice, become increasingly difficult to separate.
Who stars in Sacrifice?
The film features an eclectic ensemble:
- Chris Evans as Mike Tyler
- Anya Taylor-Joy as Joan
- Vincent Cassel as Ben Bracken
- Ambika Mod as Daughter Nature
- Jonatan “Yung Lean” Leandoer as Arthur
- Sam Richardson as Oliver
- Yung Lean as Arthur
- Jade Croot as Louise
- Miriam Silverman as Anna
- Charli XCX as Mother Nature
- John Malkovich as Gunnar
- Salma Hayek-Pinault as Gloria Bracken
Gavras wanted actors who could handle the film’s different tones and larger-than-life characters.
For Evans, that meant leaning into qualities the director already saw in him, particularly his comedic instincts and awareness of his own public image.
“Chris is very interesting,” Gavras says. “His comedic timing is amazing. He’s an extremely intelligent actor that understands completely who he is and his own relationship with ego.”
The director took that idea and pushed it to an extreme, using the mythology-inspired approach of taking a character and amplifying everything about them.
“I’ve been a fan of Anya since very early on, since The Witch,” Gavras says. He describes Taylor-Joy as having an otherworldly, whimsical quality that immediately suited the character of Joan.
For Gavras, her combination of strength and sensitivity was equally important. He believed she could make Joan feel powerful and vulnerable at the same time, giving the character greater dimension.
Vincent Cassel returns for a third collaboration
Sacrifice is the third film Gavras has made with Vincent Cassel. Cassel also produced Gavras’ first feature, Notre Jour Viendra (Our Day Will Come).
Cassel took an unconventional view of Ben Bracken after reading the script. Rather than immediately seeing the billionaire as a villain, he connected with the character’s worldview and his relationship with his wife.
“When I made him read the script, he was like, ‘I love the character. I don’t know why you think he’s a bad guy. He actually says it as it is and he understands the world, he loves his wife.’”
Gavras appreciated that interpretation and allowed Cassel to approach Ben from that perspective.
Yung Lean and Charli XCX join the cast
The film also brings a musical dimension to its mythology through Yung Lean and Charli XCX.
Gavras has a long history in music videos, having directed work for artists including Jay-Z and Kanye West. He wanted some of that energy to carry into Sacrifice.
His connection with Yung Lean and Charli XCX also goes back many years.
“Charli and Yung Lean, we’ve been friends for a very, very long time,” Gavras says. “I’ve known Yung Lean since he was 16, and he was the first one cast in the film.”
Gavras contacted Yung Lean while writing the movie and offered him a role despite knowing he was not an actor.
Charli XCX has a smaller cameo as Mother Nature. Gavras felt her presence fit naturally with the creative relationship between the longtime friends involved in the project.
What inspired Sacrifice?
The movie does not adapt one particular myth or literary work. Instead, Gavras and Arbery drew from several sources, beginning with the mythology that fascinated Gavras as a child.
Greek mythology provided the foundation, while French stories, including the legend of Joan of Arc, also influenced the film.
Gavras also jokingly points to a much more recent source: The Lord of the Rings.
While writing, he and Arbery realized that the central journey of trying to take a powerful object to a volcano had a familiar resemblance to Tolkien’s story.
“At some point we’re like, ‘Oh, we’re making Lord of the Rings.’ It’s a journey of people wanting to throw the ring of power in a volcano, and we are making the same journey.”
Where was Sacrifice filmed?
The production shot entirely on location in Greece, Bulgaria, and Iceland.
Some of the filming presented major logistical challenges. For one gala sequence, Gavras brought 200 extras dressed in formal gala attire to a mine in Northern Greece alongside the film’s A-list cast.
The production also filmed on a real active volcano.
Gavras says the cast and crew sometimes had to climb for nearly an hour each morning, with equipment carried on donkeys while everyone made the ascent on foot.
For the director, the demanding locations were part of what gave the performances their particular quality.
“I think this is what makes it interesting,” Gavras says. “It’s more fun as a director to bring the cast on a real active volcano, when actors are down to do stuff like that.”
When does Sacrifice come out?
Sacrifice will begin streaming on Oct. 16 on Netflix in the United States and France.